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WHY YOU SHOULD WATCHKevin Durant and Co. will try to make it seven straight victories for the Sophomores in the event, but it could get interesting seeing how there are only four holdovers from last year's Rookie team on the Sophomore squad (Durant, Thunder teammate Jeff Green, the Hawks' Al Horford and the Rockets' Luis Scola).Durant will be involved in several pairings to watch. At the forefront is the marquee matchup between Durant and Portland rookie Greg Oden, who was selected No. 1 in 2007 but missed all of last year after microfracture surgery. Durant has been playing some minutes at center for Oklahoma City, so we could actually see him guard Oden for a possession or two.Then there is the Durant against Russell Westbrook angle. Last year, Grizzlies' sophomore Rudy Gay abused his rookie teammates Mike Conley and Juan Carlos Navarro and scored 22 points to their 16 combined. This year Durant and Green will be the old vets picking on their young teammate, Westbrook, with double teams.A year after Durant won National Player of the Year honors as a freshman at the University of Texas (25.8 points and 11.1 rebounds per game), Michael Beasley came in as a freshman at Kansas State and put up even crazier numbers (26.2 and 12.4). It will be fun to see Durant and Beasley -- former AAU teammates from their days together in Prince George's County, Md. -- go head-to-head.There are two more teammate connections worth watching. Clippers rookie guard Eric Gordon will be pitted against L.A.'s sophomore forward Al Thornton. We'll also see a reunion of sorts when rookies Rudy Fernandez of Portland and Marc Gasol of Memphis play together for the first time since the Olympic men's basketball gold medal game in Beijing. They were both members of the Spanish national team.The Rookies should have the edge in the backcourt with Chicago's Derrick Rose (16.7 points, 6.7 assists per game) and Memphis' O.J. Mayo (19.1 points, 4.1 rebounds) facing off against Houston's Aaron Brooks (10.0 points, 2.6 assists) and Rodney Stuckey (13.9 points, 5.0 assists).Heat guard Dwyane Wade is the Rookies honorary assistant coach while Magic center Dwight Howard will be on the bench toting a clipboard for the Sophomores. A bonus to look for in this year's game: The official team jerseys were designed by 18-year-old Tim Ahmed from East Meadow, Long Island. Ahmed won the NBA LIVE Jersey Creator Contest hosted by EA Sports, beating out thousands of other entries with his desert-themed design.

My Prediction:Sophomores-120 Rookies- 115

MVP Winner:Wilson ChandlerWilson Chandler will play worry-free in this game, allowing him to show off all his skills. Defense is usually lacking in this game, so Chandler shouldn't have a problem getting to the basket and finishing strong.Predicted Stats:30 Points 8 Rebounds 4 Assists

Kevin Durant is a beast. Dude is 6'10-6'11 with handles like a guard, and a jump shot like a guard. His defense isn't bad either, especially considering it was a Rookie-Sophomore game. Once he gets a little stronger, I could see him leading the league in scoring.

My game score prediction was really close, not so much for the MVP lol. I guess that was more wishful thinking.